The major objectives of a project initiated by the Canada Council in 1976 were to develop measures of subjective social indicators and to examine factors responsible for variation in those indicators across Canada and over time. Subjective social indicators are interpreted as measures of personal perceptions, preferences, attitudes, and values. The project drew its initial inspiration from quality of life research in Britain and from research on personal perceptions at the University of Michigan. However, Canadian researchers theorized that these projects had used limited measurement scales and had ignored pertinent data on environmental influences and on objective-subjective links over time. The hypothesis of the Canadian research was that other measures are closer to the perceived quality-of-life concept than satisfaction. These measures will be identified through information gained from surveys of 2,000 Canadians in 1977, 1979, and 1981; panel surveys of 1,000 respondents in Toronto and Montreal; surveys of elite governmental and private officials; statistical information on various geographical areas; and media content analysis. Respondents will be asked how the quality of their lives relates to their aspirations and expectations. They will then be asked to compare the quality of their lives with that of the average person living in Canada. Findings from initial surveys indicate that an accurate measure of quality of life can be made by using appropriate survey scales and by comparing the respondent's assessment of his own position with that of the average Canadian. (Author/DB)